


warning signs

by Ivegotaheadlineforyou



Series: passed down like folk songs [4]
Category: Hadestown - Mitchell
Genre: Angst, Character Study, Eurydice Centric, F/M, Hurt, Memory Loss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-11
Updated: 2020-12-11
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:33:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28007004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ivegotaheadlineforyou/pseuds/Ivegotaheadlineforyou
Summary: in the middle of hadestown, there is a girl who's memories are fading fast.
Relationships: Eurydice/Orpheus (Hadestown)
Series: passed down like folk songs [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1867240
Kudos: 16





	warning signs

**Author's Note:**

> Hadestown belongs to Anais Mitchell, and Folklore belongs to Taylor Swift

_I think I've seen this film before_   
_And I didn't like the ending_   
_You're not my homeland anymore_   
_So what am I defendin' now?_

She could feel the rocky ground dig into her knees, could feel the heat compressing her heart, slowing it down until it felt like it would be easier to give up. She felt diamonds, or coal, or just fucking rocks press into her knees. She felt the heat of his hand on hers, the shaking hand that had reached out to shake his, signing the contract she didn’t realize would bind her to the oppressive heat. She wanted to be warm, but now, a victim of the underworld’s stifling embrace, she longed for the cool touch of her lover…

_Lover_ , she thought, unable to manipulate her tongue in the right ways. She couldn’t find his name within the confines of her mind, couldn’t find where she had stashed it for a rainy day. She couldn’t remember what rain felt like on her skin… Rain? Had she ever seen it fall?

The girl remembered why she had left — she couldn’t remember His name, couldn’t remember who brought her here, but she remembered the sweet sound of coins as she place them within the silver suited man’s bag. She remembered the rumbling of the train, and how her legs itched from the cold. She remembered feeling like, despite her best efforts, the home she had tried to build had been blown down in the storms.

What had happened to her home? If she fought against the ways the heat pulled her down, she could feel creaky floorboards and worn in sheets. She could feel icy fingers tracing the lines of her stomach, her breasts. She shivered at the memory — a violent thing, as if the memories of the world she once knew were being ripped away from her. Her body lurched, and she felt her bones ache. She couldn’t remember why she was gasping for breath.

The girl, with no memory of her name, or that of her lover, or of how she came to be here, could feel the frostbitten grip of a life she had let go too soon slip from her grasp. Feelings she didn’t remember experiencing flashed across her face. In an instant, she mourned the loss of herself, grieved the loss of her lover, and felt a red heat in the pit of her stomach that countered the white-hot sweat that drenched her skin. She felt the red bubble up inside of her, like poppies. Red like carnations and roses and the petals that stained her fingers as they appeared in a man’s hand.

A lyre in one hand, a lie in the other, she thought, as exhaustion crept up the back of her neck. She could feel petals under her fingers, mixed in with the rocky texture of the terrain. She knew those flowers, those lies with their soft red petals. She thought she could remember holding one. But she must have been mistaken.

With no memory of who she was, or how these stories, these fairytales, had found their way into her head, she tilted her head back. She had been here forever, she must have been as she knew nothing before it, and knew not what came after. The heat settled across her skin, the intimacy of the underworld’s embrace a twisted attempt at comfort. She was almost ready to

And she looked upwards, not knowing what lay above her, and she wished to smell flowers again.

**Author's Note:**

> This is super different from my other fics, but I hope you enjoyed it nonetheless :)
> 
> Come chat with me on tumblr! @brightas-arose!
> 
> I'm hoping that I can get more folklore fics out soon, so come send me your hadestown/folklore headcanons!
> 
> Thank you sm for reading!


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